To Love Again
by Lady Yue-chan
Summary: The missing-nin, Haruno Sakura returns to Konoha, determined to overcome all obstacles and hostility to build a place there once more. Yet she finds that her goal is harder to obtain then she expected. When she finds herself faltering, a strong shoulder comes from an unexpected direction and leads to interesting developments of the heart...
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

The morning sun rose, its light reflecting off the surface of the stone monument dedicated to the Hokages that had ruled Konoha from its beginning to present day. There were still only five faces carved into the mountain, indicating that Tsunade still held the title of Hokage and that a certain ramen-obsessed blonde had not reached the level of maturity to take upon the mantle of the position. Although it had been quite clear since after the Suna rescue mission that the man who was the container of the kyuubi would one day be Rokudaime Hokage. He had proven to all without a shadow of a doubt that he had the heart, courage, and power to one day become the leader of the Leaf nin.

It had been years since she had stood here, on one of the many high branches of one of the trees that stood just a few miles outside the city gates. It was a point where many Leaf nin would stop to view the city that they worked so hard to support and protect. It was a place where they reaffirmed the will and drive to be a ninja as well as their love for Konoha. She knew that not all would celebrate her return. In fact, most would probably view her with open hostility. It was a price she paid for leaving. One she had paid willingly.

"Oka-san," murmured a sleepy voice.

She glanced down at the child in her arms. Eyes still holding signs of sleep gazed up at her, the same shade of green as her own eyes.

"Where are we oka-san," the child asked, blinking away the sleepiness in an owlish manner after noticing the view of the city below them.

"Home. We're home, Sasuke."

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_**Final Thought from Sakura:**_

_Home…_

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

_Okay, just to let everyone know, I'm not up-to-date on everything that has happened in the series manga/anime-wise since sometime after the whole save Gaara arc. Thus this story is going to deviate from the story from that point._

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**Disclaimer:** I do not claim any rights to **Naruto** or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Kishimoto Masashi and anyone else he says has rights to it.


	2. Ch 1: Revelations and Secrets

_**Chapter One: Revelations and Secrets**_

Konoha was all a buzz with gossip that morning. A missing nin had been captured this morning. Some even claimed that the nin, a kunoichi, had turned herself in. This led to even more discussion on the topic because it just didn't make sense for any ninja who turned their back on their village to just return and turn themselves in. Unless, of course, it was all a plot to get into the village for some nefarious purpose.

But by noon, the village gossip mill had really got going when the baker's wife heard from the butcher's wife who heard from miller's wife that the miller's daughter had heard from Shiranui Genma, who had had gate duty that morning that the kunochi had had a child in her arms when she had been captured. This, of course, led to even more questions and theorizing. Who was the child? It was bad enough to turn one's back on one's village, but had the kunochi, Haruno Sakura stolen a woman's child?

While the Hidden Leaf Village buzzed with the news and speculated, Sakura sat in the Hokage's office with her son, guarded by no less then half a dozen Jounin as well as one masked ANBU as they waited for her former shishou and the council to arrive and decide her fate. Despite acting brave, she knew Sasuke was scared and unsure of what was going on. He didn't understand why the people of 'home' would capture them and treat his mother so harshly. It hadn't helped that they had tried to take him from her, but Sakura had made it clear that she would come without any trouble if they stopped trying to take Sasuke from her.

Considering that she had been labeled as an S-class missing nin a couple years after she had left and earned a place in the Bingo Book, she knew her threat held some weight. Especially when Genma had reminded the younger fools, who had forgotten, that she had once been the Hokage's apprentice and had been expected to become stronger then her shishou. It had been better for everyone not to push Sakura too much at that point when Genma had been the only Jounin there.

The door opened and Sakura met the amber eyes of her shishou for the first time in six years. She wanted to rise in respect, but she sensed the tension level of the guards in the room rise. As if they expected her to attack the woman who had helped her find herself. But considering how everyone viewed her she couldn't really be that surprised or insulted.

Tsunade stepped in front of Sakura while the council members stood to one side. She noted with some surprise that there was a few new ones. Through her childhood and up the time she had left, Mitokado Homura andUtatane Koharu had been the only members of the council, working in tandem with the Hokage to give a fair judgment (although they didn't work too well with Tsunade and it was rumored that Yondaime had problems working with them as well.) The Sandime had been able to work well enough while he ruled as Hokage, but she suspected that had to do with the fact that the three had grown up together and been a team.

She recognized one of the new faces to be Hyuuga Hiashi, the father of her old friend Hinata. That he had earned a position as a council member was not surprising, although he was the head of his clan. Some might complain that he might base his decisions for the benefit of his own clan, but those were the fools who did not know the Hyuugas. The clan was an honorable one and had always been faithful to Konoha. The other new council member was someone she didn't know, which didn't sit quite well with her. The man was about the same age as Hyuuga-san, but there was something about him that made her tighten her hold her son in a protective gesture. The first words he spoke to her did not help her feelings anymore.

"What is the meaning of this? Remove the child from the criminal," he demanded, one arm pointing to her an angry manner that was almost comical.

"Make any attempt to take my son from me and I'll break every bone in your body," Sakura said in a calm voice that brimmed with menace.

'_**Every fucking bone!'**_Inner Sakura growled in her mind, with all the feeling of violence that Sakura felt that she couldn't say aloud. It was not from fear or anything else, but an effort on her part to keep her son from hearing any curse words at such a young age. She had little doubt that he would be cursing like a pirate by the time he reached his tenth birthday as that seemed to be a common theme amongst young male ninjas. But that didn't mean she'd help him get an early start on it.

The guards in the room weren't sure what to do. The council member did have some power to order them about, yet none were too ready to see if she would follow through with her threat. And there was the point of her vocally claiming the child as her son and anyone with half a brain knew that a mother protecting a child was a dangerous creature. Even more so when she was a kunochi and one with Sakura's abilities.

"Leave the child with his mother," Tsunade said, resolving the issue while she sent a steely glare at the council member who had suggested it. The others three council members nodded in agreement of Tsunade's order and shot their peer a look. Sakura interpreted that the man was fairly new and swaggering with the power he now had.

"Mother or not, she is a criminal. Haruno Sakura left Konoha without permission and did who knows what, let alone what affiliations she made," the man said, who either had overestimated himself or underestimated the people he was pissing off with his sense of importance and power play. "And it's obvious by the existence of the child that she claims as her own, that she has lost any morals when she left. She's nothing more then a who-"

The word was never finished as a kunai suddenly appeared pressed to the council member's neck from a hand from behind. "Don't you ever talk like that about Sakura-chan," a voice that was deeper, yet still so familiar to the pink-haired woman. She blinked a few times to hold back the tears that welled up to see one of her dearest friends again.

Uzumaki Naruto had grown into himself while she had been gone. He looked more like the Yondaime, his father, then he had before. Those who had doubted that the kyuubi could be the Yondaime's son could hardly deny it now. Although she suspected that Naruto was a few inches taller then his father had been. He no longer wore orange, his signature color which was something she had mixed feelings about.

The big lug was also still as loyal to his friends despite how many others denounced them. She knew her leaving had to have hurt him and chances were he would have also been angry for her apparent defection. But she was sure no matter what he felt, his loyalty had never wavered and he had defended her even while others had spoken ill of her. It was his greatest strengths as well as weakness.

"Uzumaki, you forget yourself," the man said. "You are next in line to be the Hokage. You should not jeopardize all your hard work to defend a woman who abandoned her village. And incidentally didn't she abandon you too?"

Naruto pulled the kunai away and moved to stand at the other side of Tsunade. "I believe in Sakura-chan. She wouldn't leave if she didn't have a reason." His voice was steady and firm. Naruto could never believe that a friend could really set out to purposely harm him or betray Konoha. He always believed that there were reasons behind things, maybe not always good reasons but he always tried to understand. "You never met her before today and you weren't here when she left, so you have no right to judge her without giving a fair hearing. And we all know how you pride yourself on being fair, Eiji."

The man clearly bristled as Naruto's use of his first name, which was even more insulting because the younger man hadn't bothered with honorifics. It was clear that this wasn't a new dynamic between the two. Sakura's arrival probably had only added oil to the fire to an existing dislike that bordered on hatred.

"Well then. If she has her reasons, perhaps Haruno would like to explain why she left the village and where she's been the past six years," Eiji said, his voice holding a mocking and dismissive tone to it. The man, for whatever his reasons, had already decided she was guilty of all sorts of crimes. She could only hope that her former shishou and other council members had not been influenced by the man.

"Uchiha," she said softly.

"What was that Haruno," Eiji demanded.

"I said Uchiha. My name is now Uchiha Sakura," she said, her voice in a loud and clear voice. She tilted her face in a manner in a way that was similar to her son and his father when they had their moments of acting arrogant or superior. "I was married to Uchiha Sasuke while I was away."

"Another traitor," Eiji said with sneer. "Well it's nice to see the Konoha's traitors stick together."

"Sasuke wasn't a traitor," Sakura and Naruto yelled in unison. They looked at each other in surprise and then smiled.

"Since the Uchiha clan was massacred, Sasuke had only one goal to avenge and to try and understand why his clan was destroyed," Sakura said, setting her son down to stand next to her. Out of his mother's arms, the four-year old stood straight and tall and met the eyes of those in the room with the same defiance as those who created him. With a clearer view of him, it was obvious who his father was for he was an exact replicate of Uchiha Sasuke except for his eyes. "To that end he left because he felt that he was being held back in gaining the power to fulfill that goal. His choice of mentor to gain that power was the only true questionable thing he ever did. He never attacked Konoha and only injured those who tried to stop him from completing his goal. But he never killed anyone who was innocent."

"And what of yourself, Uchiha Sakura," the head of the Hyuuga clan asked, neither indicating that he agreed or disagreed with her reasoning about Sasuke. "You seemed content enough in the past to train and work with your teammates to bring back the Uchiha to Konoha. Why did you leave?"

Sakura glanced at Tsunade who nodded her head, before she looked back at Hiashi. "A mission from the Sandime."

"How is that possible," asked Mitokado . "Sarutobi was dead for many years before you left."

"I can answer that," Tsunade said. "The old geezer feared he would not be alive should Uchiha Sasuke leave the village to go after his brother, Itachi so he wrote the mission scroll down long before he died and hid it in a secret compartment in his office and had his grandson, Konohamaru promise to tell the next Hokage about it after he died. The boy didn't remember his promise until a few weeks before Sakura left."

"And what was the mission," asked Hyuuga.

"There were things that Sasuke didn't know about the Uchiha massacre," Sakura said. "Things that would have turned his world upside down. With the way Sasuke was before the Sandime died, he feared how Sasuke would react if he found out on his own. So if Sasuke ever left the village, it was requested that someone close to him… someone level-headed," she glanced at Naruto and gave him a look that said he should know why he wasn't chosen, "that would help him to deal with the news properly."

"What things are you talking about," the kyuubi asked, amazing Sakura with the depth of seriousness in his manner. In the past, Naruto's serious moments always had a hint of comical relief to it, but yet it wasn't here now. "His brother Itachi killed everyone in the clan, except Sasuke. End of story."

"No quite Naruto," Tsunade said. "Since Konoha's beginning, the Uchiha clan had never been completely true allies as the other clans are. There were some Uchiha that the past Hokages trusted without a doubt, but rarely was the whole clan considered loyal. Uchiha Fugaku, Sasuke's father and the leader of the clan was leading them into overthrowing the government. It was the reason why he had Itachi become ANBU to be a spy, but unfortunately for him his son was a pacifist and loved Konoha and its people."

"Itachi was a double-agent," Sakura continued the story where her shishou left off. "While he pretended to spy for the clan, he was really just spying for the Sandime. When it became apparent that the talk of overthrow was going to be a reality, he told the Sandime and the council even though he knew what might happen to Uchiha if he did."

"If a clan as powerful as the Uchiha then rebelled, it would have sent Konoha into turmoil," Utatane said softly, appearing to look even older then she was. The burden of the knowledge that she had held for so long. "The Fire Nation would have been weakened and if the other nations realized that…"

"Then another Ninja War mighta started to see who was the strongest," Naruto finished for her, showing that the young man had the savvy to understand the politics he would enter once he became Hokage.

"Yes. We couldn't let that happen. Too many lives would have been lost," replied the old woman. "Uchiha Itachi was ordered to make the greatest sacrifice by slaying his own clan. He agreed on the condition that his younger brother Sasuke be spared and that he be allowed to continue to think his clan was an honorable one."

"But Itachi wasn't sure about how Sasuke would react if he ever found the truth because the massacre left a darkness in Saskue," Tsunade explained. "so he asked the Sandime to keep watch and make provisions to deal with it should Sasuke ever find out, especially if Sasuke turned his back on the village to get his revenge against Itachi. Considering Sakura and Sasuke's shared past, she was the best choice to send. She was labeled as a missing-nin only to keep the secret of the Uchiha massacre.

"So Har- Uchiha," Eiji began to say but corrected himself, remembering that the young woman was married, "was sent to deal with Uchiha Sasuke if he found out the truth. I see no reason why she had to marry him to complete her mission."

"It's called love," Sakura retorted. "I loved Sasuke and he loved me. It was an honor and a sign of our bond that we marry and I took his name."

"You said 'loved', Sakura," Naruto noted. "Why? Where's Sasuke?"

Sakura closed her eyes and sighed. She opened her eyes, looking down and meeting her son's eyes who held the same sorrow as her own. "He's dead." When Naruto began to open his mouth to speak, she shook her head. "I don't want to talk about it right now. Just leave it that he died avenging the Uchiha and protecting Konoha as any honorable Leaf-nin."

"Well I th-" Eiji started to say before Tsunade finally lost the last thread of her patience with the man and hit him on the side of the head (with a fraction of her strength since she didn't intend on killing him; yet) to knock him out.

"A formal announcement will have to be made clearing Sakura's name," Tsunade said, glancing at the three conscious council members who nodded in agreement. "If everyone is in agreement, the truth about the Uchiha massacre will be revealed to help explain the issue. And Uchiha Itachi should be pardoned as well, belated as it may be. He gave Konoha its greatest sacrifice."

"Otou-san too," piped up a determined young voice. Tsunade glanced down at the Uchiha's namesake and son, who stared up at her steadily with no signs of backing down on having his father pardoned. He was going to grow up to be quite a man, she thought, considering who his parents were. He would be the beginning of a new Uchiha clan, a clan that would honor the memory and sacrifices of his father and uncle.

"Yes, your father will be pardoned too. Now Sakura, despite the pardon, it will probably take some type for the village to accept you. It will probably be easier to gain acceptance back with the nin then the civilians. I don't think it safe for you and your son to be living on your own." Naruto began to open his mouth to volunteer his own home, but the Hokage cut him off. "I think not, Naruto. Your place is a bio-hazard as is and Sakura will need more then your support to help her be accepted back in the village."

"May I suggest that Uchiha-san stays within the Hyuuga compound," said Hiashi. "The Hyuuga clan is respected by ninja and civilians alike and there has never been any doubt about the clan's love and loyalty for Konoha. The Uchicha and Hyuuga are also distant cousins, so it is only right that we help support the revival of their clan. With our support and protection, Uchiha-san and her son will be accepted much more quickly."

"That sounds like a plan and don't you even think about shaking your head no, Sakura," Tsunade said anticipating her apprentice's pride. "You have your son to think of as well. It will go better for him and the future of the Uchihias for you to be accepted and the support of the Hyuuga clan will help."

Sakura bit her tongue and nodded, although it was apparent to all that she did not like the idea of having to rely upon anyone else to fight her battles. Particularly as she was perfectly capable of fighting her own battles and winning. But her pride wasn't as important as her son's well-being and she wouldn't risk Sasuke for anything. He was her last link to the man she had spent most of her life loving. No, for Sasuke, both of them, she would accept the help of the Hyuuga clan.

"I thank you for your kindness, Hyuuga-san," she said formally, bowing her head in respect.

"It is nothing compared to the extent that you have gone to protect Konoha and a cherished comrade," he replied. "Until things settle down and you and your son are accepted, I think it would be in your best interest that you two are always seen in the company of a Hyuuga. And I can think of no other who will be an asset and a protector for you both then my nephew, Neji."

As he said Neji's name the masked ANBU in the room moved to his side. The ANBU reached for his mask and took it off, to reveal the cold masculine beauty of Hyuuga Neji. His silver eyes, Hyugga eyes, showed no emotions of how he felt about what he heard or about being volunteered to what Sakura equated as babysitting her and her son from the wrath of the villagers who wouldn't forgive so easily despite the truth coming out about her supposed 'defection' and 'betrayal.'

In a way he reminded her of the man she loved. They both seemed aloof holding people at bay, although Sasuke had proven that he wasn't like that with people he let in. Like Sasuke, she remembered Neji as being a man who pushed himself to his limits and beyond to get stronger. Neither man could tolerate nothing but the best out of themselves. But she could never remember Neji ever having any fire which Sasuke did despite his stoic demeanor; then again it wasn't like she had spent a lot time with Hyuuga Neji back then.

Remembering Sasuke, caused her heart to ache with pain of loss. What had started off as a foolish and overzealous school girl's crush with embarrassing fangirling moments had ended in a deep and true love between two souls. If she didn't have their son, Sakura might have followed Sasuke to the next world. But for her son's sake she would live to ensure his future and that the Uchiha clan was restored and followed the path it should have from the very beginning. For their son and for Sasuke, the only man she would ever love, she would ensure it.

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_**Final Thought from Inner Sakura:**_

_EVERY FUCKING BONE!_

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**_Author's Note:_**

_Thanks to my reviewers_

Yori-sama-1983

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_**kunoichi -**__ female ninja_

_**hitai-ate**__ - the forehead protector worn by nins_

_**baa-chan**__ - Naruto's way of referring to Tsunade which basically means grandma or old lady_

_**-shishou**__ - teacher/mentor_

_**dobe**__ - idiot_

_**kyuubi**__ – nine-tailed fox_

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**Disclaimer:** I do not claim any rights to **Naruto** or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Kishimoto Masashi and anyone else he says has rights to it.


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